John (Johnny) Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, Long Island (New York). He was educated at UCLA and on Juilliard School of Music. He started composing music for television in the late 1950s, and scored such shows as "The Today Show", "Bachelors Father", "Checkmate" and "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" as well as the well-known themes for "Gilligan's Island" and "Lost In Space". During the early 60s, Williams started composing scores for motion pictures. His first original score was for "Because They're Young" from 1960 and his work in the 60s and early 70s ranged from scoring "How To Steal A Million" (1966) and "The Rievers" (1969) to supervising "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969). His first of five Academy Awards (until 1998) was won for the orchestration of "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1971, but his status as the most succesful and popular composer of soundtrack was first established after his second Academy Award for "Jaws" in 1975. This all-time greatest of horror soundtracks, featuring the simple, but chilling two-note theme of the great white shark, together with "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" from 1977 - where Williams used a naļve, five toned tune as the signal from the visitors - confirmed the work relations and friendship between Williams and director Steven Spielberg which began with "Sugarland Express" in 1974. Apart from one movie, "The Color Purple" (1985), Williams has scored all of Spielbergs motion pictures, and this cooperation has spawned one of the most quoted soundtrack themes in history, the Raider's March from the Indiana Jones trilogy. Another trilogy made John Williams create history, when his score for George Lucas' "Star Wars" in 1977 was the first non-pop/rock album ever to reach number one on the top 10 charts in England and the US. The romantically heroic theme from the Star Wars Saga is in many ways a common denominator for all of Williams work since the late 70s and hopefully a long time into the future...